B2B Marketing – Achieving the Personal Touch with Modern Buyers

Do you remember the novelty of receiving that first marketing email which included your name in the subject line or body copy? It was great right? The impact that this tactic had on engagement rates made B2C and B2B marketers alike think they’d uncovered the secret to success. However, as with all things marketing, audiences quickly got wise to it and became jaded and unimpressed. So what now? Does that mean personalisation is dead? Certainly not. In fact, thanks to today’s ever-advancing technologies and data capturing capabilities, this technique can be more valuable than ever before.

Segmentation

As we all know, a one-size-fits-all approach to emails or content marketing just won’t do. Nowadays, buyers want to know they are more than just a name on a database. They want to see that you understand their needs, wants, issues, and goals. They want to see that you’ve gone beyond the standard demographic information like business size, location, and industry. For B2B marketers, it’s now more important than ever to get under the skin of prospects and see what actually makes them tick. What are their pain points, their current solutions, and their objections to change? Importantly, once this information has been sourced, it’s possible to segment databases based on much more than just job role and location.

Personalisation

Now that you’ve gone beyond the standard demographic information, and have really begun to understand the buyers, it’s now possible to start truly personalising communications. For example, emails and content can be written for a particular group of prospects that are connected by their buying authority, current solutions, and objections to change – as opposed to just their job role. Not only will this allow you to use more direct and targeted language, but will also enable the target audience to engage with the text on a deeper level. As mentioned previously, showing prospects that you understand them is the key to success in today’s busy marketplaces.

Data

This is the make-or-break factor in modern segmentation and personalisation. As we’ve seen, the ability to segment target audiences and then serve them with highly targeted messaging is dependent on the ability to capture and effectively manage the right data. Of course, research and data tracking can be done via desk-based research and excel databases… but wow, it’s a laborious process. Thankfully, today’s marketing technology has advanced to such a degree that this activity can be done quickly and efficiently. For example, landing pages can be used to capture information and feed this into a marketing automation (MA) software. The MA tool can then segment and group contacts based on the criteria you choose. The outcome is a segmented list of prospects, and all the information you need to offer them highly targeted and personalised communications. Simple.

To find out more about the capabilities of marketing automation, and how best to capture and use your data, speak to us today on02392 314489or emailinfo@reallyb2b.com. Alternatively…